Social entrepreneur, blinded by cobra bite, to return to India

HE was blinded and paralysed after being bitten by a venomous snake in India but that has not deterred him from preparing to return to the same country. Ian Jones, a charity worker from the Isle of Wight, uses a wheelchair now and has some limited movement in his legs but he is still determined to carry out his work of helping others through his social enterprise.

Last November, Jones contracted the coronavirus in a remote village in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan and it was then when he was bitten by a black king cobra, the world’s longest venomous snake.

Speaking to BBC, Jones said when the snake first bit him, it felt like an instant pain like a bite but when he saw that it was a cobra, panic set in. He was taken to a hospital located hours away and then to a bigger hospital. He slipped into a coma and remained in that condition for several days.

Even after Jones returned to his senses, his legs became paralysed and he started losing his sight.

More than £21,000 was raised to pay for his treatment in India.

Jones, who is the chief executive of social enterprise Sabirian, which sells fair trade gifts and reinvests back into charity projects and initiatives on the Isle of Wight, has not lost sight of his enterprise’s noble cause.

He told the BBC, “This will not beat me. I can not be the person [where] it will just worry me or [leads me to] just give up on life. But it’s the support and knowing of how many we are directly or indirectly affecting in a positive way - that's what gives me the determination to keep going on.”